Category: Research

A place for ideas for the future, to collect research

ResearchLeave a comment

Red-tanned leather

Greet Gijsberts

Since I've started back to school, I've not been starting much new, though still keeping an eye on possibly useful items that come up on the lists.  From Norsetalk2: Christopher wrote: >What would be a period way to a veg tanned leather belt red? There are a number of extant early and medieval recipes for dyeing leather  red. The most common dyestuff I've seen referred to for that purpose was  brazilwood, but madder was also used. There is an extant Frankish belt in the Arnegunde grave; it's very  elaborate, with cutwork and gilded parchment and a big gilt bronze  buckle. … Continue reading Red-tanned leather

Research

Bibliography: Indian

Greet Gijsberts

When I wear a sari, I generally wear a tight, knee-length kaccha-stylewrap based on the instructions on the sarisafari website:http://www.sarisafari.com/howkaccha.html Here’s a picture of me fresh out of the kitchen, with a localproto-Indian:http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h182/icbhod/Andi%20at%20Trimarian%20Fall%20Coronation/100_3293.jpg I don’t think this wrap is right, I think it should be more like theKhandala wrap, seen here:http://www.cbmphoto.co.uk/saris/phsariMH.html I call this the “flower seller’s wrap” but I’ll be damned if I canremember where I got that term. This wrap is the basis of my 12thcentury Kalinga/Eastern Ganga Dynasty servant kit. The use of thisspecific wrap is based on my interpretation of line drawings in FashionStyles of Ancient … Continue reading Bibliography: Indian

Research2 Comments

I can haz diamond twill!!

Greet Gijsberts

Remember this project?  From July?  Well, seeing the Wood and Woven merchant at Gulf Wars reminded me that I was OH-SO-CLOSE to having my own 5 yards of 20" wide diamond twill, without paying $30/yard for it.  It is cotton, but still… Magical, watching the pattern appear.  If one didn't know about all the painstaking threading, it would seem easy.  Though, see those loose threads?  They're loose because I'd made a threading error, and at first the pattern showed up like this:  Can you see the error?  Hint, it's dead center.  Look for where the diamonds don't line up.  Here's … Continue reading I can haz diamond twill!!

Clothing and Equipment, Research1 Comment

Mailbag – About my Dorset loom

Greet Gijsberts

(not my pic, but the seller's) My little Dorset loom gets the vast majority of email questions, and I'm going to start answering them here also, in the hopes that the surprising number of loom researchers and hopeful weavers can find what they're looking for more easily. The latest asks particularly (I paraphrase, the reference is to the blog post where I got to try out an Oxaback loom):  Did you ever go to Vavstuga for a weaving workshop? I am getting interested in learning to weave, and still choosing a loom.  Many people want me to get a jack … Continue reading Mailbag – About my Dorset loom

ResearchLeave a comment

Initial data dump

Greet Gijsberts

 (a C-belt is in my future.  Also some particular yoga moves.)  Well, as typical for me finding a new rabbithole, it's going to be All Fighting! All The Time! for a bit at Greet's Middle Ages, until I find balance again.  Some of you will love that…everybody else just hang on.  There will be tents and tunics and graphic design and embroidery soon.  Progress report: I have read The Armored Rose, and I liked a lot of it.  The part I could judge was of course the psychology/chemistry/physiognomy part.  Which jived completely with the swimming, dance, working construction sites that … Continue reading Initial data dump

ResearchLeave a comment

Down yet another rabbithole.

Greet Gijsberts

(It's funny, I'm now able to feel a rabbithole opening up beneath my feet and there is still NOTHING I can do about it.) Why am I interested in fighting? (here I try out a bit of grande allegro on the armor…someday I'll get a photog who'll catch the tour jete') Because I was a dancer.  I trained for classical dance 20+ years.  I did mostly ballet, but also lots of modern, jazz, tap, and the occasional oddness like Scottish and African.  (I was better at the non-ballet, but ballet, particularly pointework, makes you tough.)  I have also done swimming … Continue reading Down yet another rabbithole.

Research1 Comment

Trying it out on someone else’s loom…

Greet Gijsberts

Since I took Thora Sharptooth's wadmal class at Pennsic (see that entry here), Grainne and I have been saying we ought to get together to work on her warp-weighted loom. She had one, but it had been little more than a coat rack since its creation, and I was a great catalyst to get it going.  (I do this frequently – I show up and people get courage.  It's a wonderful thing.) So this was yesterday afternoon. In a bit less than three hours (and with much gabbing and giggling), we got a Pretty Durn Wide(tm) warp spaced out on … Continue reading Trying it out on someone else’s loom…

ResearchLeave a comment

Playing with musical modes further…

Greet Gijsberts

A friend and I were discussing the feeling of menace, of doomedness, in The Animals' House of the Rising Sun.  (I just typed "Rising Stone"…surely this has been filked, oh Murfreesboro pals?  You won't find me doing it, as I don't really care for filk, but just curious.) Anyway, since I have been learning about musical modes, and trying to develop an ear for them, and therefore understand how they impart different moods (moods = modes, get it?), I wondered if the "menace" in Rising Sun might devolve to what mode it's in. Yes, serious geeking ahead.  Pull on the … Continue reading Playing with musical modes further…

ResearchLeave a comment

Amber is a SCA convention; new cemetery report

Greet Gijsberts

Hmm.  I'd been thinking about getting a couple of strands of amber chips to play with, when I found a reference in Owen-Crocker to amber going out of use by the 7thc, and shortly thereafter a comment on Norsefolk about huge ropes of amber being unsupported by evidence, and a "SCA convention".  I need to read more about this so I don't get myself into trouble. (The new necklace from Pennsic, from Cabachon, which is the stall run by the woman who teaches so much Anglo-Saxon stuff, including architecture, and references literature so charismatically.  I might be okay with this … Continue reading Amber is a SCA convention; new cemetery report